Spring 1989
Reform in Russia
In Essence
RU~
A. Teixeira, in Public OW-ion (Jan./Feb. 1989), 1150 17th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
After Election Day 1988, the Reverend Jesse Jackson declared that Governor Mi- chael Dukakis could have triumphed a "margin of enthusiasm" if only he had in- spired poor and minority voters to go to the polls in greater numbers.
Similar sentiments were voiced by many Democrats after George Bush's 54-46 per- cent victory. And, at first glance, says Teixeira, a public opinion specialist at Abt Associates, t...
Michael Nelson, in PS: Politi- cal Science and Politics (Fall 1988), 1527 New Hampshire Ave. the Better N.w., Washington, D.C. 20036.
Nineteenth-century Americans would have been astonished last summer's uproar over Dan Quayle's nomination for vice president. Ironically, says Nelson, a Van- derbilt political scientist, the Quayle con- troversy highlights a dramatic improve- ment in the way vice presidential candidates are chosen.
Early in the nation's history, when, by law, the runner-up in every...
Richard A. Brody and Catherine R. Shapiro, in PoliticalThe President Behavior Annual (Volume 2), Westview Press, 5500 Central
Ave., Boulder, Colo. 8030 1.
Scholars and politicians have long cited the "rally around the flag" effect: thanks to patriotic sentiment, public approval of the president always goes up in times of inter- national crisis.
Not so, say Brody and Shapiro, of Stan- ford University. Such grassroots support is "far from automatic." In some cases, the president...
Richard A. Brody and Catherine R. Shapiro, in PoliticalThe President Behavior Annual (Volume 2), Westview Press, 5500 Central
Ave., Boulder, Colo. 8030 1.
Scholars and politicians have long cited the "rally around the flag" effect: thanks to patriotic sentiment, public approval of the president always goes up in times of inter- national crisis.
Not so, say Brody and Shapiro, of Stan- ford University. Such grassroots support is "far from automatic." In some cases, the president...
the turn of the century, the "gross regional product" of these nations will equal that of North America.
Meanwhile, to "contain" the Soviets, the United States keeps 330,000 military per- sonnel, nearly half its Navy ships, and sev- eral Air Force fighter wings in or near East Asia. The annual cost: some $50 billion, or 18 percent of the Pentagon budget.
Trying to cope with altered economic realities of the U.S.-Asian relationship, Washington has pressed Japan and other Asian...
Christopher Hewitt, in Terrorism (No. 3, 1988), Crane,And Dollars Russak & Co., 3 E. 44th St., New York, N.Y. 10017.
Terrorists the world over hope to achieve tions were relatively numerous and costly their various political goals disrupting ($22.5 million); in Northern Ireland, there societies, spreading fear, and provoking were none. The Basque ETA exacted a governments into repressive acts. What heavy toll in "revolutionary tax" extortions about their economic impact? from local...
Spain (814), Cyprus (652), and Italy (386).
Almost everywhere, terrorist campaigns sparked increases in government outlays for police and other security forces. Oddly, however, these expenditures often bore lit- tle relation to the actual threat. Thus, West Germany, facing relatively minor terror- ism, spent an additional $2.7 billion over 11 years, while Italy's internal security
ECONOMICS, LABOR & BUSINESS
spending dropped.
Adding up the direct dollar costs of ter- rorism, Hewitt found th...
Robert Eisner, in Journal of Economic Literature (Dec. 1988), 1313 21st Ave. S., Ste. 809, Nashville, Tenn. 37212-2786.
Most Americans regard the gross national product (GNP) as the basic gauge of the nation's economic progress. But Eisner, president of the American Economics Association, writes that many specialists believe that the official GNP figures are deeply flawed.
The GNP is calculated from the U.S. Commerce Department's National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), a kind of national...
Robert Eisner, in Journal of Economic Literature (Dec. 1988), 1313 21st Ave. S., Ste. 809, Nashville, Tenn. 37212-2786.
Most Americans regard the gross national product (GNP) as the basic gauge of the nation's economic progress. But Eisner, president of the American Economics Association, writes that many specialists believe that the official GNP figures are deeply flawed.
The GNP is calculated from the U.S. Commerce Department's National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), a kind of national...
James S. Coleman, in Noire Dame Journal of 'Social Capital' Law, Ethics, & Public Policy (NO.3, 1988), Notre Dame Law
School, Notre Dame, Ind. 46556.
Two years ago, in a controversial study comparing 1,015 public and private high schools, Coleman, a University of Chicago sociologist, found that private schools, par- ticularly Catholic schools, frequently out- performed public schools.
Less widely noted at the time were dif- ferences among the private schools. The "independent" p...
James S. Coleman, in Noire Dame Journal of 'Social Capital' Law, Ethics, & Public Policy (NO.3, 1988), Notre Dame Law
School, Notre Dame, Ind. 46556.
Two years ago, in a controversial study comparing 1,015 public and private high schools, Coleman, a University of Chicago sociologist, found that private schools, par- ticularly Catholic schools, frequently out- performed public schools.
Less widely noted at the time were dif- ferences among the private schools. The "independent" p...
much re- cent experience, is "community-oriented policing." At its best, it involves police working with other city agencies and the residents of a targeted neighborhood to es- tablish public order and safety. Some proven remedies: cleaning up alleys, fixing broken windows, improving lighting, tear- ing down abandoned buildings (havens for drug users), repeatedly sweeping drug-in- fested areas, and deploying foot patrols. The results are more than cosmetic: "Law- abiding citizens...
Vernon Carstensen, in P~ib1iii.s (Fall 1988), 1017 Gladfelter Hall. Temple University 025-25, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122.
In 1785, Congress passed a law, now ob- scure, that was to change the face of Amer- ica during the next century.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the division of the nation's then-limited public lands west of the Appalachian Mountains into townships six miles square, subdivided into 36 one-mile- square (or 640-acre) "sections."
"Like bees or ants or other...
"The Powers That Be Lobbying" Sheila Kaplan, in The wash-ington Monthly (Dec. 1988), 161 1 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20009.
On Capitol Hill, the "media lobby1'-representing TV broadcasters, cable TV, and newspaper and magazine publish- ers-is one of the most powerful. Do these guardians of the Fourth Estate spend their time crusading for First Amendment rights? "Occasionally," reports Kaplan, a freelance writer. "But the day-to-day work of a Washington m...
"The Powers That Be Lobbying" Sheila Kaplan, in The wash-ington Monthly (Dec. 1988), 161 1 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20009.
On Capitol Hill, the "media lobby1'-representing TV broadcasters, cable TV, and newspaper and magazine publish- ers-is one of the most powerful. Do these guardians of the Fourth Estate spend their time crusading for First Amendment rights? "Occasionally," reports Kaplan, a freelance writer. "But the day-to-day work of a Washington...
the American So- ciety of Newspaper Editors, "and less about government meetings."
Big city dailies also face increasing com- petition from suburban newspapers and, especially, local TV news. But TV journal-ists do not elevate the quality of reporting, observes Ehrenhalt. Kevin O'Connor, re- cently elected Milwaukee county trea-
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
surer, says of his experience during the campaign: "If you could stage something with color, you could get covered."
The Jou...
his academic
says Kimball. Although he prized clarity of successors.
Babel "What's Wrong With Babel?" Leon R. Kass, in The American Scholar (Winter 1989), 1811 Q St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
"Then they said, 'Come, let us build our- The story of Babel, he notes, is one of a
selves a city, and a tower with its top in the series of tales in Genesis-Eden, Cain and
heavens, and let us make a name for our- Abel, the Flood-in which man is told of
selves, lest we be scattered...
Clark R. Chapman, in Asfrononzy
'Mercu~'~
(Nov. 19881, 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee, Wisc. 53233.
More than a decade after America's un- manned Mariner 10 flew near the planet Mercury during 1974-75, scientists have fi-nally digested all of the data from the flight. And they are starting to ask some big questions, reports Chapman, of Tuc- son's Planetary Science Institute.
Located about midway between the Earth and the Sun, Mercury is a "truly bi- zarre" planet. Its rock cmst is unusually t...
Clark R. Chapman, in Asfrononzy
'Mercu~'~
(Nov. 19881, 1027 N. 7th St., Milwaukee, Wisc. 53233.
More than a decade after America's un- manned Mariner 10 flew near the planet Mercury during 1974-75, scientists have fi-nally digested all of the data from the flight. And they are starting to ask some big questions, reports Chapman, of Tuc- son's Planetary Science Institute.
Located about midway between the Earth and the Sun, Mercury is a "truly bi- zarre" planet. Its rock cmst is unusually t...
(Nov./Dec. 1988), 2 E. 63rd St., New York, N.Y. 10131-'0191.
Only 34 years have passed since a patholo- Scientists have long since agreed that all gist performing an autopsy on Albert Ein- human brains are virtually identical. Ex- stein removed his brain to search for the cept in one crucial respect: the arrange- secret to the great scientist's genius. ment and number of connections between
WQ SPRING 1989
PERIODICALS
neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain. The secrets of the brain lie in &...
chemi- cal agents called cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Just as CAMs create thousands of feathers in chickens, making no two feath- ers identical, so they create a multitude of subtly different neural networks in the brain.
The second stage occurs after birth, when the strengths of the synapses (be- tween the neurons) are modified sights, sounds, and other outside stimuli.
Ultimately, the workings of the brain are
Greenhouse Effect? "About
determined by "competition" among di...
Michael Reforming EPA Gruber, in EPA Journal (Nov./Dec. 1988), Superintendent of Documents, GPO, Washington, D.C. 20402.
On April 22, 1970, millions of Americans celebrated the nation's first Earth Day- and within three years Congress had cre- ated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and passed sweeping new anti-pollution laws.
Today, writes Gruber, an EPA staffer, there is not only public disappointment with the results but a "widening gap" be- tween what Americans expect...
Michael Reforming EPA Gruber, in EPA Journal (Nov./Dec. 1988), Superintendent of Documents, GPO, Washington, D.C. 20402.
On April 22, 1970, millions of Americans celebrated the nation's first Earth Day- and within three years Congress had cre- ated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and passed sweeping new anti-pollution laws.
Today, writes Gruber, an EPA staffer, there is not only public disappointment with the results but a "widening gap" be- tween what Americans expect...
the arsenic and mercury then used in taxidermy, Lloyd notes-Charles had given up taxidermy to avoid what he suspected were the ill effects.
Raphaelle took the job to please his fa- ther. But he began drinking, small quanti- ties at first, to ease the pain and other ills caused the toxic chemicals. His paint- ing faltered. His father chastized him for "high living and drink," and even went so far as to publish a pamphlet containing thinly-veiled criticisms of his son.
Raphaelle died,...
the early 20th century, however, many critics had soured on him, dismissing him as a mere children's writer.
What is to be made of Stevenson's ca- reer? "Given all that he had to overcome to achieve what he did," says Epstein, who teaches at Northwestern, "there is simply no setting aside his life." And yet, he con- cludes, Stevenson "was the literary equiva- lent of the decathlon athlete: competing in 10 difficult events yet holding world records in none." Writing...
John Vickers and Vincent Wright, in West EL~J-In Europe pean Politics (Oct. 1988), Gainsborough House, 11 Gainsbor-
ough Rd., London El 1 1RS England.
From London to Lisbon and Rome, West- ern Europe's political leaders have been putting more and more government-owned enterprises on the auction block during the 1980s. "Privatization" has "swept the world," exults Britain's Conser- vative finance minister, Nigel Lawson.
Yet, Vickers and Wright, both British scholars, note that...
John Vickers and Vincent Wright, in West EL~J-In Europe pean Politics (Oct. 1988), Gainsborough House, 11 Gainsbor-
ough Rd., London El 1 1RS England.
From London to Lisbon and Rome, West- ern Europe's political leaders have been putting more and more government-owned enterprises on the auction block during the 1980s. "Privatization" has "swept the world," exults Britain's Conser- vative finance minister, Nigel Lawson.
Yet, Vickers and Wright, both British scholars, note that...
Michael C. Hudson, Middle East Studies Asso-
ciation Bulletin (Dec. 1988), Dept. of Oriental Studies, Univer-
sity of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. 85721.
Nothing suggests that the young Moslem nations of the Middle East are on the verge of becoming Western-style democracies. Since the mid-1950s, the mukhabarat (authoritarian) regime has remained the norm-notably in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Ara- bia, and the Persian Gulf monarchies.
However, says Hudson, a Georgetown Arabist, Americans should not ignore...
Book Reviews
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance
By John Boswell.
Pantheon, 1989. 473 pp. $24.95
POOR SUPPORT: Poverty in the American Family
By David T Ellwood.
Basic. 1988. 271pp. $19.95
STARTING EVEN: An Equal Opportunity
Program to Combat the Nation's New Poverty.
By Robert Haveman. Simon and Schuster.
1988.287 pp. $19.95
RETURN TO DIVERSITY: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War ll
By Joseph Rothschild.
Oxford, 1989. 257 pp.524.95
by Charles S. Maier.
Harvard, 1988. 227 pp.$22.50
by Taylor Branch.
Simon & Schuster. 1988. 1064 pp. $24.95.
by Ira M. Lapidus.
Cambridge, 1988. 1002 pp.$42.50
by Shawn Rosenberg.
Princeton, 1988. 255 pp.$37.50
by Hemando de Soto.
Harper & Row, 1989. 256 pp. $22.95
by Harry S. Ashmore.
Seven Locks Press, 1988. 513pp. $14.95.
edited by Paul Jay.
Viking,1988. 448 pp. $29.95
by Richard A. Posner.
Harvard, 1988.371. pp. $25
by C. G. Jung.
Princeton, 1988. 2 Volumes .1578 pages.$130.00
by Norma Lorre Goodrich.
Harper &Row, 1988. 386 pp. $10.95
by Joseph E. Stevens.
Univ. of Oklahoina. 1988.326 pp.&24.95
by Patrick Trevor-Roper.
Viking Penguin.1989. 207 pp. $24.95
Essays
S. Frederick Starr
Areforming crusade grips the USSR. previous waves of reform in their own Enthusiasts of change call for new country. Newly published memoirs of the laws, new economic mechanisms, Khrushchev "thaw" (1956-64) find avid even a new and more independent national readers in Moscow. Gorbachev himself of- psychology in place of the old conformism. ten hails the era of Lenin's New Economic What Gorbachev calls "rapid transforma- Policy (1921-28) as a pattern for the tions...
Areforming crusade grips the USSR. previous waves of reform in their own Enthusiasts of change call for new country. Newly published memoirs of the laws, new economic mechanisms, Khrushchev "thaw" (1956-64) find avid even a new and more independent national readers in Moscow. Gorbachev himself of- psychology in place of the old conformism. ten hails the era of Lenin's New Economic What Gorbachev calls "rapid transforma- Policy (1921-28) as a pattern for the tions in all spheres...
ight months in the Soviet capital left me convinced that perestroika, Gorbachev's "restructuring" of the
-
Soviet economy, remains a phantom. It has not yet touched the average Russian. If a political rival to ~orbachev were to look his countrymen square in the eye and ask, as Ronald Reagan once did in a somewhat different context, "Are you better off now than you were three years ago?", the an- swer would be a reverberating "No."
Perestroika is, as Soviet citizens t...
/p>
The origins of the first Russian state remain a mystery. Scholars differ over whether the early Rus' people were descended from Nordic in- vaders or tribal Slavs from southern Russia, as Nicholas Riasanovsky notes in A History of Russia (Oxford, 1984). What is clear is that the Rus' were first united by the warrior-princes of Kiev during the ninth century. One of these princes, Vladimir (980- 101 5), converted the Kievan Rus' to Orthodox Christianity in 988, "thus opening the gates for...
Jean-Paul Sartre was a professional phi- losopher who also sought to preach to a mass audience. For a time at least it looked as though he had succeeded. Certainly no philosopher this century has had so direct an impact on the minds and attitudes of so many human beings, especially young peo- ple, all over the world. Existentialism was the popular philosophy of the late 1940s and 1950s. His plays were hits. His books sold in enormous quantities, some of them over two million copies in France alone....
Carolyn Webber
The art of taxation, wrote Jean-warfare and standing armies-far the Baptiste Colbert, an adviser to greatest expense of government until re-France's Louis XIV, "consists in so cent times. During this century, especially plucking the goose as to obtain the largest since World War 11, tax burdens have possible amount of feathers with the small- grown dramatically, and taxation has ac-est possible amount of hissing." quired two new uses: "stabilizing" domes-
Over...
The art of taxation, wrote Jean-warfare and standing armies-by far the Baptiste Colbert, an adviser to greatest expense of government until re-France's Louis XIV, "consists in so cent times. During this century, especially plucking the goose as to obtain the largest since World War 11, tax burdens have possible amount of feathers with the small- grown dramatically, and taxation has ac-est possible amount of hissing." quired two new uses: "stabilizing" domes-
Over the centuries,...
in America has seemed almost like a re- prise of the Boston Tea Party.
More than the people of most nations, Americans generally have chosen to rely on the most painful forms of taxation (e.g., di- rect levies on property and income), keep- ing the tribute rendered "unto Caesar" at the forefront of public attention. Not only have Americans remained deeply un-friendly to the taxman, but our debates over taxation have been vehicles for defin- ing larger conflicts-between regions and classes,...
Jude Wanniski in The Way the World Works (Simon & Schuster, rev. ed., 1983), an ambitious "supply side" re- interpretation of history in terms of taxation and economic principles.
"What made the Industrial Revolution and the Pax Britannica possible," Wanniski argues, with an eye on contemporary American poli- tics, "was the audacity of the British Parlia- ment," which ignored the experts' dire warnings about the growing national debt in 18 15, after the defeat...
the National Research Council.
Of the familiar "three R's," reading and writing have aroused the most concern in today's debates over school re- form. Yet "numeracy" is no less important than literacy, notes the U.S. National Re- search Council (NRC).
"No longer just the language of science, mathematics now contributes in direct and fun- damental ways to business, fi-nance, health, and defense."
Yet, from elementary schools to universities, today's dismal mathematics...
During the 1920s, H. L. Mencken was the voice of the educated and sophisticated throughout America. His criticism of Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover...
Before I am charged with unfair labeling, let me make clear that I am talking not about ancient Greece but 20th-century Brazil. The Corinthians under discussion rarely, if ever, travel by boat, and this particular Socrates, while given to philosophizing, is a popular soccer player.
